Announcing "Wear a Tux Penguin Day"

Paw Prints: Writings of the maddog

Jul 20, 2013 GMT

Jon maddog Hall

When I went to the Guinness Brewery in Dublin Ireland with my friend Antoni Dabek (an English-speaking Polish person living in Galway), I was wearing my Linux Essentials T-shirt from the Linux Professional Institute (lpi.org).

As I handed in my ticket the gentleman at the door said "Do you use Linux?", pointing at my T-shirt. I said "yes I do". He said "My room-mates all talk about it".

We had gotten about fifty feet inside the building when a tour visitor (with his family) said "Do you use Linux?". I said "Yes, I do", and he introduced himself as a new employee of the Hewlett Packard Cloud Initiative, who would be starting his new career the following Monday, and told me it was his six year old son who had spotted "Tux" on my T-shirt and alerted his father. I introduced him to Anthony, who has worked for a couple of years in HP's Cloud Initiative.....the "small world syndrome" strikes again.

The point is that Linux is everywhere. We often just do not see it. So I am asking *everyone* to prominently wear a "Tux" T-shirt on August 7th (my birthday), and (if you have one) drink beer (or coffee) out of your favorite GNU/Linux mug or stein.

Some people will say “I do not have a Tux T-shirt!” Well, Larry Ewing, the designer of Tux, was kind enough to give everyone permission to use the image as long as you tell people that he designed it with the GIMP when you are asked. That is easy enough to remember, so find your favorite image of Tux, get an iron-on-ink transfer for a T-shirt, and make your own! Make two and sell or give one to a friend! It is a gift that keeps on giving!

You can also buy a “Tux T-shirt” from many different outlets....just search for them on the Internet. There is still time to get it before my birthday!

Find out who is using GNU/Linux, but never remembered to tell you.

Show everyone that "GNU/Linux is Everywhere" on August 7th...make it a great birthday for me!